This invention is concerned with production of a simple, economical carton for bottles, particularly designed for capped bottles having sloping necks leading upwardly from shoulders at the top of a cylindrical lower bottle portion. Such bottles are used in the brewing and soft drink beverage industries. The carton design results in considerable material savings in comparison to a normal rectangular carton, and assures tight packing of the bottles against one another and against the carton walls. This eliminates the necessity of an interior partition, which can be used optionally when desired. The carton also provides multi-layer cushioning about the bottles for external protection.
The usual bottle carton has a rectangular configuration and is made from paperboard or corrugated paperboard. In order to provide clearance for normal top-loading of the carton, it is necessary to provide partitions or bottle carriers with dividers between the adjacent bottles. The interior area of such a carton contains considerable unused space, particularly along the upper portions of the bottles were the rectangular corners are spaced at a distance outward from the sloping bottle necks.
Prior bottle carriers and packages have tackled the problem of this unused space, but this has been done primarily with "wrap-around" carriers which are fitted about the bottles in a single operation and which provide only limited bottle protection at the ends of the carrier. Patents showing this general feature are too numerous to fully list, but examples are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,186,545 to Conrades; 3,167,214 and 3,152,688 to Mahon; and 3,306,519 to Wood. These patents include cutouts for the caps of the bottles and tabs or dividers to separate individual bottles from one another.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,578,238 shows a rather tight wrap-around carton without cutouts, again formed in a single wrapping operation. This carton is tapered upwardly on all four sides to firmly grasp the bottles. The container shown is a lightweight carrier and not designed for use as a shipping carton. A related carrier construction is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,688,972 to Mahon.
Prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,519,127 to Wood discloses a bottle carrier of the tubular type having top, bottom and side walls and apertures formed in its top wall for receiving the bottle necks wherein the carrier is adapted to accommodate variations in bottle sizes by means of an expansion feature. In order to render the carrier expandable, the apertures for the bottle necks which are formed in the top panel are spaced apart by distance between centers which is slightly less than the diameter of one bottle and the peripheral portion of each aperture which is remote from the oppositely disposed aperture is rendered yieldable by suitable slits.
The carton described herein is designed for shipping of bottles, but is also capable of use as a small carrier package for six or twelve bottles. It is designed to package two or more rows of upright capped bottles. It can be manufactured from relatively stiff corrugated board products. The described method of assembly of the package results in a very tight package with sufficient yieldability and cushioning of the bottles to assure safe shipment without necessitating the use of interior partitions or other dividers between adjacent bottles.